Guernseys vs. Jerseys

"Ouvre", she said coyly.
 (Gladys Thompson on page 5 of Patterns for Guernseys, and Arans, third edition, copyright 1979 by Dover Publications.)

Guernseys were knit with either Western Stitch Mounting or Combined Stitch Mounting.

Jerseys were knit using Eastern Stitch Mount.

The Eastern Stitch Mount produces a tighter fabric; and, a stitch that is more more square.  How the stitch is mounted affects the shape of the knit stitch.

Western and Eastern Stitch Mount do produce different fabrics, that can be distinguished by folks that have worked with both knitting methods.  The folks in Yorkshire often confuse these fabrics, and are not careful with what they call these fabrics. Jerseys have won "guernsey" knitting competitions, so even knitting judges in Yorkshire are willing to call a "jersey", a "guernsey". Their failure to be precise and accurate in their textile nomenclature is not my problem.

Rather my goal is to knit better fabrics, and understanding how stitch mount affects the  fabric is important. For me,  guernseys and jerseys are different fabrics, with different virtues, made with different knitting techniques.

However, knitting the gauge of guernseys and jerseys does require a knitting sheath or knitting belt of some kind to provide the leverage to pack the yarn tightly.  Thus, here we have two different knitting methods that produce different fabrics, but which use similar knitting sheaths.


I have been thinking about for "Ouvre" for sometime now.  Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, is the solution.  In this case. it also involved realizing that there is a serious error in Mary Thomas's discussion of stitch mount in her Knitting Book.  It is still a very good book.

Love and Hate of the Classics

Over the years, I have had a love and hate relationship with Paton's Classic Wool (PCW).


A large swatch of Paton's Classic Wool knit on 2.4 mm needles was the  was the first clue that I was on the right track.  However, ultimately I generally decided that  the fabric that I was producing was not worth the effort, resulting in a large number of WIP sitting around.  Finer needles seemed like more effort for not that much better fabric.

Exploration of blunt needles over the last few months has allowed exploration of knitting PCW on finer needles.

Knit on 2 mm needles, I get 9 spi and 12.5 rpi for 112.5 stitches per square inch, and on 1.6 mm needles I get 9.5 spi and 12.5 rpi for 118.75 stitches per square inch.

While the numbers are similar, the fabrics are different. In fact, the numbers would seem not that far off of the 7 spi by 10 rpi (70 stitches per square inch),  that I get with 2.38 mm needles, and yet the 3 fabrics are very different.

Knit on the 1.6 mm  needles, the fabric has a smoother surface that allows water to just run off in ways that just does not happen with the fabrics knit on larger needles. It is also surprisingly abrasion resistant.

Knit on the 2 mm, the fabric is thicker and has more surface texture, but is still very weatherproof.  The extra thickness/ softness gives better drape, and the surface can be brushed into a very nice nap.  Over all, the fabric knit on 2 mm needles is softer and wickedly warm.  It is a nice Guernsey fabric, that is much, much warmer than what most folk knit as "gansey" fabric.

These fabrics are firm, so they need to be knit to fit, rather than knit from a generic pattern.  However, these fabrics have more stretch and elastisity than woven fabrics.  They can form a warm second skin that allows free and easy movement.  And, they have tremendous warmth for the weight.

In many ways, these are fabrics that I have been trying to knit since 1998, but I did not have the tools and skills to knit.  Oh, there were hints, such as the fact that "mak'n pins", were often only 1.5 mm in the old days.  When I first read that, I should have jumped forward to 1.5 mm needles.  And, when I read about how long it took a professional knitter to make a set of needles.  That should have told me that they are not tapered to the tip, but rather blunt.

And, you are not going to get to PCW knit at 70 stitches per square inch with circular needles. I have knit small swatches of such fabrics on circs, but that convinced me that sweaters from such fabrics were not plausible. I tried over and over. Swatches of these fabrics can be knit with a knitting belt, but those swatches told me that that it imposed significant wear on my knitting belt. so I moved on to wooden knitting sheaths.  Maple, rosewood, and even cherry, endure the stress very well. I got here using 12" blunt needles with my latest generation of knitting sheaths.

My point is not that PCW is the best yarn, only that it is a very good yarn, and a great value. And it sets new standards for hand spun - it tells us that rather generic woolen yarns can be knit into great objects. It opens the door for finer fabrics knit from finer woolen yarns.  And, it suggests that generic worsted spun yarns can produce great fabrics. And, if that is the case, why is there such a variance in price?

The evolution of my knitting sheaths, 

with newer sheaths to the left.

The needles on the left are old.

The horizontal knitting sheaths were made in the last 3 months, and the vertical sheaths are older.   The gansey needles are 10 years old. (And, for large objects, longer needles are faster!)  Sizes of needles in photo range from US1 to US0000, and all can be accommodated with various needle adapters in the photo.  Special needle adapters are made for swaving.  Number and color of bands on the adapters indicate size, and placement of the band(s) indicates gansey or swaving. These needle adapters work better with the swaving needles than the knitting sheaths that the swaving needles were originally made to fit.  (However, currently the swaving needle adapters work better with my Durham style knitting sheaths. The Durham sheaths put the swaving needles into a better ergonomic zone.)

Note that the needle adapters allow use of one sheath with many different sets of needles.  The knitting sheaths work much better when they are made to fit one style of work belt, and are then used with  the belt they were made to fit.  Between the old and new knitting sheaths are (on the block of maple)  examples of  the threaded inserts currently used to attach the needle adapters to the knitting sheaths.

In the context of thousands of hours of planned knitting, taking a couple of hours to make a knitting sheath that might increase productive by a couple of percent is perfectly rational, regardless of the discount rate.   When those same knitting sheaths move better fabrics from the realm of plausible dreams into practical reality, it is silly, not to be making better and better knitting sheaths.

I keep the old knitting sheaths around to later, check, verify, and validate the data related to each transition.  As Feynman said, "It is important not to  fool yourself."

Good Knitting

I get asked if I consider myself a"good knitter" on a fairly regular basis.  Usually, it is as a snide, "Do you think you are an expert knitter?"

That is a hard question to answer, because what is an "expert knitter"?

Is it someone that has been through the Master's Knitting Program?  No, I have not been through the any MKP.

I think being a good knitter is being able to knit the required fabric to size and finish the object appropriately.  For example, boot socks need to be durable; and, socks knit for winter wear should be warm, while boot socks knit for summer wear should be cool.  Objects knit to be decorative should be beautiful, and stay beautiful for an extended life span.  Knit sportswear, should have appropriate warmth for the activity, be attractive, and stay attractive for many seasons of  wear.  Objects knit to be worn during work should be very suited to the nature of the work.  In any case, the knit object can be no better than the fabric. At the core of being a good knitter is being able to knit, not just a good fabric, but the right fabric for the object. And, the object can be no better than its fit. Thus, at a minimum, I think that a good knitter can produce excellent fabrics with near perfect fit and finish in a reasonable time period. And, an expert knitter can produce exceptional fabrics with perfect fit, and finish, very quickly.

Traditionally, British seaman's sweaters were considered masterpieces of  knitting. A catalog of  such objects is  Gladys Thompson's, Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans (PGJA).

However, most modern knitters do not knit the fabrics as described in the PGJA. The first sweater in the book is A Channel Island's Guernsey as knit on a commercial basis for working seamen. The suggested yarn is 5-ply worsted spun, at ~ 1,000 ypp, and the pattern says that 416 stitches give a chest of 44 inches in pattern. That is 9.5 spi or  37 stitches per 10 cm in pattern.  Total number of stitches per square inch is around 150.  I expect a good knitter to have knit such objects at the stated gauge, and had them fit very well. That yarn, knit at that gauge, has virtues, which do not appear when the yarn is knit more loosely. Knitting "tightly" is a misnomer, as the virtues are achieved by knitting with finer needles to produce more stitches per square inch, rather than knitting "tighter".   A good knitter knows how to work with these virtues because the knitter has made and tested a variety of such objects.  Such knitters have worked with fine needles before, and climbed the substantial experience curve. One does not knit such objects on a first try. (cf: Rae Compton's patterns)

Another set of examples in PGJA are the Sheringham Guernseys and ganseys that are knit with finer yarns, resulting in as many as 240 stitches per square inch. Again, the path to the finer fabric leads through finer needles, not tighter knitting.  The needles used for Sheringham ganseys, are so thin e.g., (1.5 mm) and flexible, that "knitting tighter" is simply not an option. Yarn tension is absolutely limited by the spring constant of the needles.

Finer fabrics require finer needles.  And, more stitches per square inch requires faster knitting to finish objects in a reasonable period of time. It can be done.  It is a matter of knowing the craft, and having the right tools.

For years, I worked almost exclusively with US1 needles, but over the last several months, I have converted to needles in the 1.5 mm range. The full transition took a couple of years. The first part of that transition was leaning that blunt needles allowed knitting fast enough to finish finely knit objects in a reasonable time. It required understanding the physics, visualizing the skills, making the tools, and then actually developing the skills. Again, the bottom line is that both tools and skills matter.  The skills without the tools are nothing.  The tools without the skills are just junk. However, I do not see instructions in modern knitting text on how to practically produce such fabrics, and such fabrics are ignored in modern master's knitting courses.

The bottom line is that I think Gladys Thompson's, Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans, as written, sets an enduring standard of knitting excellence. A careful reading of  Weldon's Practical Knitter, tells us that, yes people did knit like this, but the gauges are not as clearly stated. In fact, the Woolen Guernsey Frock in Weldon's Twenty-First Series, is similar in gauge the first Guernsey in PGJA  but includes some additional finishing detail that the expert knitter may wish to use. If one can knit the objects in PGJA ( or Weldon's)  as written, then that is a much sterner test than any modern master knitting program. What master knitting programs teach -- is how to knit in the fashion of our time.  Such knitting is not an enduring standard of excellence.

Current contents of  my knitting project box including a leather apron,

2+ hanks of 5-ply worsted spun LONG WOOL,

knitting journal, PGJA, knitting sheath,

 crochet hook, tapestry needle, and stitch markers. 

There are ~10,000 stitches on the (6 x 1.5 mm x 12") needles at this point. If I was knitting an Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater (e.g., 5 spi), it would be ~ 1/4th done.

Close-up of  needle tips.

 A gauge swatch, knit in the round, on gansey needles for the current set of projects.

Gauge is ~150 stitches per square inch with the 5-ply, ~1,000 ypp worsted spun yarn.

That is a gauge that one is NOT going to get with larger needles, regardless of how strong their  hands are.

This is absolutely one of the best fabrics that I have ever knit as outer wear in foul weather.  It is very much on a par with the Aran weight MacAusland (the great gardening gansey) knit on the 1/8th inch steel needles, but is a great deal less work to knit.  And, while just as warm, it is much lighter in weight and more comfortable to wear. 

The project box contents for a Sheringhan gansey differs by the kind of yarn, and a few more stitch markers.  These days, I knit the Sheringham fabrics very much in the style of the sock fabric below. For a pair of downhill ski socks, I use the 5-ply yarn, and the same needles, but sometimes I swave the feet. For a pair of sport socks, I use 6-strand, worsted spun, 1,650 ypp yarns with 1.5 mm swaving needles.

Swaved sock in progress on 1.5 mm needles.

6-strand, worsted spun, 1,650 ypp yarn

This cabled yarn is cool and the fabric breathes very well.

They are all nice fabrics, each with its own virtues.

Return from a Memorial Day climb in Yosemite. 

The previous day and night, our camp, (4,000 feet higher, and on the west side of the ridge) got several feet of snow that promptly blew into drifts many feet deep. We were equipped for an early summer climb, not for a descent in deep snow. Getting out was quite a slog. We said some unkind things about weathermen.  On the other hand, Bishop and Lone Pine did get only a trace of  rain that week,  

These are the kind of guys that get the gear I knit.  We go, we look, we touch, we feel.  In those days, we wore poly-pro, and we smelled.  Wool is better!

Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool

The warmest object that I have ever knit, is from the Old Lions Brand Fisherman's Wool.

Then they moved to production to China, and I tried the new version, and am on record as not liking it.  I owe Lions Brand a deep apology!!

I had swatched the old Fisherman's Wool and settled on US1 needles.  When I tried the new Fisherman's Wool I just went ahead with those US1 needles without swatching it.  That was a big mistake.

Somehow the other day, I ended up knitting the new, produced in China, Fisherman's Wool on US1 (2  mm or AWG 12 needles) and love the fabric for Guernseys.

Gauge in stockinette is just over 9 spi / 11 rpi (close to 100 stitches per square inch).  Today, it is my yarn of choice for knitting sweaters for the temperature range from about  20 F to 45 F.

This has nothing to do with the lanolin in the wool which will washout and be replaced many times in the life of a sweater that does things, and everything to do with the construction, twist, and fiber in the yarn.

Size 12 or 13 needles

The first pattern in Gladys Thompson is A Channel Islands' Guernsey.

The pattern was provided to GT by de Cararte and le Patourel of Guernsey. They owned a very old commercial firm that produced hand knit objects for export for sale to sailors at ports from Gibraltar to Reykjavik and St Petersburg.  De Cararte and le Patourel were only one of several firms in the Channel Islands that exported knitwear for seamen and fishermen.  Shiploads of fine knitwear was produced and shipped from the Channel Islands. Thus, we can be sure that there was a lot of knit wear worn by seamen, all knit to a similar level of fineness.

Some say, they do not find it in the museums.

Where did it all go?  Good husbands/ sons/ brothers, discarded it, and took a bath as soon as they got to shore.  Bad  husbands/ sons/ brothers wore them home, so their wife/mother/sister had to cut it off them, and burn it while the seaman took a bath with lye soap. Real seaman's knit wear was not likely to end up in a museum.

In the Guernsey pattern, 334 stitches are used for a chest size of 38 inches.  That means there were ~8.8 spi or 35 stitches per 4" or 10 cm.  The Guernseys were knit very tight. Since it  was a competitive industry, we can assume that the other firms knitting for seamen knit similarly tightly.  Why?  Because it is a warm, weatherproof fabric.  I know, I have knit a lot of it for myself and my friends. I knit it because it is our favorite fabric for foul weather wear.

A doodle in the round on "A Channel Islands' Guernsey" patterns.

The stockinette has a gauge of just over 9 spi and the

pattern variations are at just under 9 spi.

The needles are size 12. 

The yarn is a commercial 5-ply worsted spun

with a grist of ~950 ypp

However, there is a group that claims such fine tight knitting was never common or useful.  That is because they do not know how to knit such fabrics.  They have not knit such fabrics.  And, they have not tested such fabrics in serious foul weather.

However, knitting such objects is easy - if you know how.  First you use long needles called "gansey" needles. If you have gotten this far, you know I have been working with gansey needles for 10 years. With gansey needles you need a fulcrum so you can apply leverage for fast and powerful knitting.  You can use a knitting belt as your fulcrum, but a real knitting sheath is a more controlled fulcrum and  allows much faster knitting.

On page 7,  GT tells us to use Size 12 or 13 needles for knitting the Guernsey. Because of the group that claims 8 spi is as tight as necessary for gansey yarn, we assume the "Size 12 or 13" refers to the  UK sizes in the range of 2.25 - 2.75 mm. Such needles do produce the 7 to 8 spi the the group likes to think is as tight as such yarn can be knit.

However, The Channel Islands are not the UK. The 12 or 13 does not refer to UK needle sizes. Once one drops the assumption that the 12 or 13 is UK sizing, then one does what one always does, and one swatches until one gets to 8.8 spi.  I have knit a lot of  5-ply gansey yarn at 8.8 spi, so I know that it happens on 1.5 mm gansey needles with a knitting sheath.   I have a great number of such needles, because I like the fabric that results from knitting this yarn at this gauge. If I was knitting objects for sale to seamen, 8.8 spi is the gauge I would choose, because seamen would appreciate the warmth of the fabric.  Remember, this is the gauge that I knit for the guys that have saved my life.

If you flip thorough the various standards for wire sizing, it turns out the the needles I use are in fact Size 13 in AWG.  So, yes I get 8.8 spi from gansey yarn using Size 13 needles, just not UK13!

Money

Some say that in the study of knitting, the study of fishing and its history is a red herring.

Fishermen and sailors supported many thousands of professional knitters for hundreds of years. And, fishermen and sailors consumed the products of many millions of hours of  knitting by wives, mothers, and sisters.  In return for those millions of hours of knitting by family, the sailors and fishermen contributed to the cash flow of the family. If the knitters knit poorly, then fisherman or sailor died and did not bring home his wages. This put a premium on good knitting, and both the professional knitting and the home knitting was labor of large economic value. The economic value of knitting is very germane to the study knitting and its history.

Fishing was for food and oil.  The products of fishing were essential to medieval civilization.

Hand knitting was essential to industrial fishing from the 13th century until the invention of the knitting frame circa 1590.  We know that sailors did wear knit clothing from various sources including Chaucer.  We know where they were fishing from Kurlansky.  Cross referencing with modern paleoclimatology and the nature of wooden square rigged ships, we can estimate the required warmth of the clothing used.

Unless we can offer a suitable  alternative clothing, then we have to accept knit objects as the clothing of sailors.  Furs pelts, and leather are warmer, but need to be fully dried every few days. Thus furs and pelts were not an option for the longer fishing voyages as on shore fish were fished out in the 12th century. Woven fabrics are denser but not as thick and hence not as warm.  Quilted objects are warm, but are bulky and do not allow the freedom of movement for working the rigging of a square rigged ship. Quilted objects are very well suited to junks where the sails can be handled from deck.  What else is left? -- Well knit wool!

The requirements imposed by realities of the sailing and fishing industries tell us the knitting standards met by generations of  both professional and home knitters.  Those standards were very high indeed.

Mostly, modern knitters do not use knitting technologies that allow the production of very warm knit fabrics required by sailors and fishermen on wooden ships without engines .  The knitting technologies currently in use do not affect or diminish the effectiveness of the old knitting sheath system.

Five years ago, I pointed out that modern yarns do not produce fabrics as warm  and durable as yarns widely used in the past, but which are no longer in fashion.  For example, the old Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool could be easily knit into fabrics that are warmer than modern  5-ply "gansey " yarns. Then production of LB Fisherman's Wool Production was moved to China, and the new  LB Fisherman's Wool is not nearly as suited for knitting warm fabrics.  I have knit objects from MacAusland's wool that are warmer than comparable objects knit from "5-ply gansey yarns."  And, my hand spun can be easily knit into fabrics that are warmer than what I believe can be reasonably   knit from either the old LB Fisherman's Wool or the MacAusland's.

Very warm knit fabrics evolved under the economic stimulus of money and need by the sailing and fishing industries.  Without the influence of the sailing and fishing  industries, recreational knitting has lost the technical skills to produce the very warm fabrics produced in the past by hand knitters for the sailing and fishing industries.

I do not care what knitting technology any particular modern knitter uses.   However a knitter that thinks 5-ply gansey yarn knit on circular needles produces the warmest possible fabric has a very shallow knowledge of their craft. And, in particular, a very shallow knowledge of the needs of the clients that shaped medieval knitting.

I suspect that they do  not like my views because I compare various aspects of modern knitting to the best of  traditional knitting which was supported by huge economic flows from the sailing and fishing industries.  They think, I am saying that they should knit like that.  I am not,  I am only saying that such knitting was done and is possible.

Some days, I think that no amateur can can be as competent as a professional. On these days, I do not think that modern amateurs can ever match the knitting of  long dead, talented and trained professionals.  On the other hand, I know amateur wood turners that produce better bowls than professionals, because the amateurs can lavish more time and resources on the their objects, while the professionals must control costs to meet a sales price point. On such days, I feel that the modern recreational knitters, freed from a need to control costs and limit labor can brilliantly exceed the best knitting of the past.

Towards a taxonomy of knitting

A knitting needle is a lever for moving loops of yarn.

See http://www.ohio.edu/people/williar4/html/haped/nasa/simpmach/lever.htm

Levers used in knitting are Class 1, Class 3 and various springs.  If we look at the elements of the various knitting techniques we see:

Yarn tension

1. Right hand
2. Left hand
3. Both hands
4. Pin on chest or around neck

Tools 

1. Cable needles
2.  Cable needles/ 2 sets
3. Single point needles
4. "Sock needles" (Short double pointed needles, which may more or less flexible but the flex is used for ergonomic comfort rather than for individual stitch formation. Sock needles may be bent or curved but the curve is for ergonomic comfort rather than individual stitch formation.
5. Stiff, short double pointed straight needles, with knitting sheath to match
6. Flexible double pointed straight needles, with knitting sheath to match and flexed into each stitch.
7. Long double pointed straight needles with knitting pouch (may be stiff or flexible)
8. Short curved stiff DPN used with knitting sheath to match, and rotated into each stitch.
9. Hooked needles 

Fulcrum / mechanical advantage

1. Thumb of hand holding working needle. / ~1:3
2. Ball or base of thumb of hand holding working needle./ ~1:3
3. Second finger hand holding working needle./ ~1:3
4. Index finger hand holding working needle./ ~1:3
5. Knitting sheath./ 1;20 => 1:50
6. Center  or outside edge of  right palm./ 1;20 => 1:50
7. None, spring action of needle.
8. None, spring action of fabric.
9. Shoulder joint / e.g., no mechanical advantage.

Effort (source of force to move loop)

1. Rotation of right wrist
2. Fingers in right hand (any or all)
3. Forearm
4. Bicep
5. Deltoid
6. Pectorals
7. Tricep
8. Rhomboideus

Now, a Ravelry forum might offer 200 different knitting styles that I would say all use left hand yarn tension, the right thumb as a fulcrum with wrist rotation as effort yielding a mechanical advantage of 1:3.   200 styles of knitting that offer the same mechanical advantage.  One or another may offer ergonomic advantages or minor advantages in speed, but they all have the same mechanical advantage and the same amount of hand movement, so they are going to produce very similar results. 

However, if one looks around there are knitting techniques that involve flexing a needle held in a knitting sheath with the palm of the hand, into the working stitch, looping the yarn, and allowing the spring action of the flexed needle to finish the stitch.  This is such a different concept of knitting, that in contrast the 200 versions of continental knitting are all one technique.  And using one set of cable needles or 2 sets cable needles or DPN or SPN or changing the mount of the stitches or purling backwards does not change the essential analysis of how the lever is used to move the loops of yarn.

There are knitting techniques that involve rotating needles held in knitting sheaths into the stitch, looping the yarn over the needle and then allowing the spring of the fabric to pop the needle out of the fabric and finish the stitch. This generates a very powerful compound leverage, and the effort for the entire stitch is one quick push of the needle, with the knitting sheath controlling direction. this is an old and very fast way to knit, but it is not something that is likely to be included in a Ravelry thread on ways to knit.  It works very well.  The fact that I do it everyday makes it science, and since it is the technique used by the Terrible Knitters of Dent makes it is also history.  It is the right way to knit fine gloves and socks from very fine yarns.  Would you like a demo?

And, then there are the long DPN used with a knitting pouch.  What can I say, but that it was a breath of fresh air.  

If you want to tell me there are a large number of different ways to knit  that I do not understand or cannot perform, then you need to tell me about knitting techniques that use physics and tools not listed above.  When I learned to knit, I was almost instantly dissatisfied, and I rapidly went through all the minor variations.  That is, I spent ~6 years trying all the variations of the standard modern knitting methods.  At than point, it became very clear that I was looking for something radically better.

There followed months of experimentation with gansey needles and years of  learning how to control them with knitting sheaths.  This blossomed into an entire spectrum of very powerful knitting techniques that were very different from hand held needles and quite different from each  other.

Then, came swaving, where curved needles are held in a knitting sheath and rotated into the stitch, and the stretch of the fabric acts as a spring to finish the stitch.  This is different from all other knitting.

So, yes I know  the common knitting styles and understand the variants of the common knitting styles.  

Real, hand spun, 10-ply Aran yarn

Plied up from worsted singles that I spun over the last 4 years. It is it 211 yards of hand spun 10-ply weighing 196 grams (504 yards per pound.)  It can be done.

Plying was done on an Ashford Jumbo flier running about 300 - 400 rpm, so plying took a couple of hours.

The singles were on bobbins held by a new Lazy Kate:

In use, it was clamped to a foot stool.

Most of the effort in this project was adjusting the LK. The concept was designed for 5-ply and 10 ply required some thought so the yarn paths did not cross and interfere.  And the original design was for smaller bobbins. Thus, a second set of taller dowels had to be made and finished.  And, I had to compensate for the differing twist in the various singles being used.  This is done by putting in 2 or 3 dowels, and weaving the single between them to provide tension. All in all, these were all lessons that would have be learned sometime.

Over all there are ~4 hanks of 10s in the project, so hence forth the time from fiber to finished 10-ply is about 12 hours of spinning and 2 hours of plying per 200 yard skein.  Time to spin/ply the 1500 yards of  full worsted, 10-ply yarn for an Aran sweater would be ~100 hours.  This time can be dramatically reduced by not producing true worsted singles.  Some of these singles were spun before I got the Alden Amos fliers, and thus they took longer to spin.

Fibers in the various plies include Cotswold, Romney, Suffolk, Merino, and Rambouillet. There are 2-plies of navy blue, 2 plies of light blue and 6-plies of natural white. This was as we say, "A stash buster."

I can get a full hank of  5-ply on the Jumbo Bobbin, so a lot of my 10s are on larger bobbins that will hold a full hand of single.  However, since the Jumbo Bobbin will only hold ~ 1/2 hank of Aran, in an 10-ply project, I would just work with smaller bobbins.

It is now a cake ready to knit.

Slop

John Marchant’s Dictionary (2d ed 1760) defines jacket as a short outward garment such as a sailor might wear. Thus, what you would call a gansey or Guernsey would be called a shirt if worn as an under garment and a jacket if worn as an outer garment, and a frock if rather loose.  And if long, it would be a gown. Consider John Boyd’s A manual for naval cadets, where only in one reference are they called “knitted worsted jackets” and other times simply “jackets". Note well the use of “jackets” by Liardet, for the garment the crew is wearing to sleep in on cold nights. (Liardet was a sea captain who wrote a large number of texts on seamanship and military/ merchant ship management.) Likewise, knit wear may be called a “frock”, per Mary Wright

If sold by the ship (slop chest), they would all be known as “slop”. See for example; The Royal Navy, 1790-1970 by Wilkinson-Latham.

Additional information is in the Fourth Report of the Commissioners for Revising and Digesting the Civil Affairs of His Majesty’s Navy (1806). These reports include full details and history of the operation of the slop chests. In The laws, ordinances and institutions of the Admiralty, (1746, Vo.l 2 pg 301) we see both broad cloth coats and “Kersey gowns” are to be sold at 19 shillings. each. (~twice the price of a "striped suit" of clothes, or 3 time the price of a "blue suit") In The accounts of the Lord High treasurer of Scotland: 1473-1498, we see that “Kersey” is a finely knit fabric. From both contexts, Kersey was expensive.

Edited to say this is clearly wrong.  Kersey was a woven fabric.  Thus we still have the question of, " how did the top men stay warm." Twill fabric, even with a nap does not solve the problem.

Thus, we have knit upper body garments in the British navy slop chests in 1746, based on official government reports available in the national archives.  And the garments brought aboard by volunteers and merchant seamen are repeatedly referenced in the basic texts of the time.  The existence of such garments given the authority and the number of such references is beyond doubt.

If we must look to Admiralty documents, 

The Nautical Magazine: A Journal of Papers on Subjects Connected ..., Volume 2 (1833), at that time there are worsted, white knitted jackets. and in Admiralty Orders, &c. &c.

(Circular, No. 83.) Admiralty, 23d October, 1832, we have blue knitted jackets.

And note the that the slop chests did not sell “oil skins”. We know that some war ships had infrequent  “make and mend” days.(see for example Liardet on warship management. Other sources say some war ships went months between M&M days.  Sailors on warships were not given time to knit. This is no surprise as the Captain made a profit on all slops sold to his crew.) Thus if a man was pressed, and came aboard, he could buy a knit gown, and various kinds of cloth, but it might be months before the sailor could fashion a set of oil skins. Thus, we know that the “gown” had to be very warm. It had to be weather proof.

It is worth noting the difference between the Navy's selling slops to seamen and the way the British Army and Marines were clothed. In Reports from Committees of the House of Commons: Repr. by Order ..., Volume 13 (1803) pg 622 et seq., we see that clothing and equipment was issued to these forces, and if they remained in the service for 8 months, the soldier owned the clothing/equipment.  As we look at navy accounts pg 166 et seq we see line items for purchase of slops (to be sold to seamen) and clothing for prisoners of war,but no item for any other kind of clothing for seamen.  Thus, there was no funding for oil skins to be issued to seamen.  The sailor either brought an oil skin aboard, or made an oil skin on a "make and mend day" or went without.  On the other hand the  "striped suits" were lined with duck would have been reasonably wind proof, but not comfortable against the skin when wet, and very slow to dry. 

Academic and scientific works do not cite common knowledge such as is available in basic texts and encyclopedias. The above information is in the basic seamanship texts and encyclopedias of the time.    It was in the government reports on the topic from the time. It can be found in multiple other sources. Anyone with a basic knowledge of British or European shipping or fishing or naval operations circa 1750 should have be aware of this information.

The only question was, “How warm or weather proof, are such fabrics?” The answer is VERY! The proof is in the knitting and testing of such fabrics. That is what I have been saying, ‘the proof is in the knitting!”  The only peer review would be of the knitting, and that would require a knitter with expertise in knitting with long needles and a knitting sheath.